Six Charged as Conspirators in Miss. High School Slayings

Six "quiet kids," all current or former students at Pearl High
School in Mississippi, were charged last week by police in a plot to
kill fellow students.

Police were led to the circle of friends by their investigation into
the Oct. 1 shooting rampage at the high school in which the alleged
student gunman's ex-girlfriend and another teenager died and seven more
were wounded.

A 16-year-old sophomore, Luke Woodham, was charged in the killings
and in the stabbing death of his mother earlier that day.

Last week, six days after the shootings, three of the suspected
conspirators were pulled out of their morning classes and arrested at
the high school. Five of the six suspects are students at Pearl. Donald
P. Brooks II, 17; Wesley Brownell, 17; and Delbert Shaw, 18, are
seniors. Two others are juniors: Justin Sledge and Daniel Thompson,
both 16.

Mr. Sledge had been suspended from school before his arrest because
he had disrupted a school candlelight vigil in the aftermath of the
shootings by "making speeches," said William Dodson, the superintendent
of the district.

A sixth accused member of the plot, Marshall Grant Boyette, 18, is a
Pearl High graduate and a first-year student at Hinds Community College
in Raymond, said Arthur F. "Skip" Jernigan Jr., a lawyer for the
4,000-student district.

Lawyers for the suspects either did not return phone calls or
refused to comment last week.

Not Guilty Pleas

Mr. Boyette and Mr. Brooks were also charged with conspiring to
kill, unsuccessfully, the latter's father. All the suspects, including
Mr. Woodham, have entered pleas of not guilty.

Superintendent Dodson said that before Mr. Woodham allegedly began
firing his rifle at students gathering before morning classes, he had
walked in and pinpointed where certain students were standing or
sitting.

None of the suspects had a record of discipline problems, and each
was an above-average student, Mr. Dodson said. "They were quiet and
just low-profile kids." .

But the suspects, including Mr. Woodham, were seen as a group. "Some
of them did have a very unusual interest in philosophy," particularly
in Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th-century German philosopher who wrote
on nihilism, Mr. Jernigan said of the clique. A manifesto allegedly
written by Mr. Woodham about his motives--and circulated by Mr. Sledge
after the shootings--quoted Nietzsche, officials said.

Unimaginable Acts

Classes at the high school were suspended Oct. 2 and Oct. 3 so that
counselors could comfort faculty members and students. School reopened
Oct. 6, only to have the arrests the next day bring more disruption and
a frenzy of coverage by the local and national news media. Satellite
trucks ringed the high school Oct. 8, officials said, but were barred
from the campus and adjacent property as of late last week. About 200
students--or 150 more than usual--were absent that day from the
1,039-student school.

At the time of the shootings, security consisted of teachers and
administrators greeting and monitoring students--the only protection
anyone imagined was needed. At least for a few weeks, Mr. Jernigan
said, Pearl police officers will also be patrolling the school.

"The community has indicated that they do not want the school to
become a fortress, but that it may be a good idea to implement some
tighter security measures," Mr. Jernigan said.

In a community the size of Pearl, a 20,000-resident suburb of
Jackson, almost everyone knows at least one of the victims or suspects,
Mr. Jernigan said. The tragic events have left students and staff
members distracted, grief-stricken, and fearful. Police have not ruled
out making more arrests.

"The church and the school are the two things that drive the
community," he said. "Obviously, one of those has been violated in a
bad way."

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